Perdido 03

Monday, January 25, 2016

Here's An Emblem For What's Wrong With Education In The Reform Era

Tom Porton is used to drama: Since arriving at James Monroe High School
as an English teacher 45 years ago, he has taught and staged plays.
Outside, in the Bronx River neighborhood where the school is, there was
plenty of drama in the 1980s, when AIDS
and crack ravaged the area. His response then was to establish a group
of peer educators who worked with Montefiore Medical Center to teach
teenagers about H.I.V. prevention. His efforts earned him awards,
including recognition from the City Council and the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, and led to his induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Now
he is at the center of drama: Last month he clashed with Brendan Lyons,
the school’s principal, who disapproved of his distributing H.I.V./AIDS
education fliers that listed nonsexual ways of “Making Love Without
Doin’ It” (including advice to “read a book together”). This month, he
said the principal eliminated his early-morning civic leadership class,
which engaged students in activities such as feeding the homeless,
saying it was not part of the Common Core curriculum. Mr. Porton was
already skeptical of that curriculum, saying it shortchanged students by
focusing on chapters of novels and nonfiction essays rather than entire
works of literature.

So,
next month Mr. Porton — a 67-year-old educator whom students praised as
a lifesaver and life-changer — is walking away from teaching. He handed
in his retirement papers on Friday.

Education in the Reform Era, in the Danielson Era, in the Endless Testing Era has no place for a teacher like this.

What, a curriculum that engages students in activities like helping to feed homeless people?

No, by God, that's not education!

Writing argumentative essays about this, that's education!

The principal who has successively pushed Tom Porton out sounds like a doozy:

Mr.
Lyons — who repeatedly replied “no comment” to questions during a
telephone conversation — arrived at the school at the start of the
academic year. A previous tenure at a Manhattan high school was marked
by his replacing paper hall passes with toilet plungers, which students used to wreak havoc on property and one another.

In
December, on World AIDS Day, Mr. Porton handed out his flier, as he had
for almost 25 years. Mr. Lyons sent him an email saying the flier was
“inappropriate,” and asked that he collect those already distributed.
Though Mr. Lyons said he would discuss the matter later with him, Mr.
Porton said that conversation never took place.

H.I.V.
and AIDS may have faded from the public mind, but they remain a danger
in places like the South Bronx, especially among young blacks and
Latinos. Mr. Porton said the school has failed to meet Department of
Education mandates to educate students about the diseases, making his
work all the more necessary.

Mr.
Lyons, who would not say if the school met the mandates, never
explained his objections to Mr. Porton. At the start of this semester,
Mr. Porton said, the principal eliminated the 40-student leadership
class because he said it was not part of the standard curriculum, even
though the class met before the formal start of the school day. Because
of that, combined with Mr. Porton’s disappointment over the standardized
test frenzy that rules in many schools, he chose to leave.

And what kind of teacher was Tom Porton?

This kind:

Reaction among students and former students, many of whom learned of Mr. Porton’s retirement on Facebook, was immediate and full of outrage.

“How
can anyone think what he does is inappropriate?” said Janelle
Roundtree, a former peer educator who graduated from Monroe in 1995 and
went on to Howard University. “He changed Monroe. He was in the
forefront of so many things. The school is losing out on this one.”

“Tom
has been the consistent heart of that building since I was at Monroe in
the ’70s,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who still wonders how the teacher managed
to get tickets to Broadway shows. “He was always looking for the heart
and soul of the individual. I would never have had the confidence to do
what I do without him. He changed my life forever.”

The truth is, there is no place in public education these days for a teacher like Tom Porton.

Teachers who teach to the test, who teach by the Danielson rubric, who teach the crap they want her/him to teach and nothing but that - those are the kinds of teachers wanted these days.

As Porton says in the Times article, the powers that be pay lip service to the social and emotional needs of children, but all that really matters these days is the test scores.

Alas, life in the de Blasio NYCDOE is pretty much the same as life in the Bloomberg NYCDOE - incompetent administrators get moved around to destroy more and more schools while excellent teachers, inspirational teachers, are pushed out.

12 comments:

The entire DOE payroll is out of control RBE. These principals get shuffled around like you say, but even worse are the individuals with fake job titles who just move from title to title to title over years and years and years. The website SeeThroughNY is an amazing tool. You cannot believe what some individuals are pulling in. 200K salaries for what? What do they do?

Banana Kelly huh? Isn't that the same school where the current principal of Clinton HS is from? The one who's being probed about the grade fixing, etc? What happened to that investigation? Ah haha haaaa ha ha haaaaaaaa!!!!!

So sorry to read this post RBE. I had the good fortune to work with Tom Porton at Monroe and since I was the Health teacher, I was witness to his work starting the HIV peer educators program. This man was indeed the heart and soul of that school and a wonderful teacher and colleague who Always put students first! He used to read the morning announcements which he always ended by saying "And remember to... Read a book" As his colleague I can say he taught me too and I share the love his students have for him!

I don't generally commentary on blogs but as I see this blog I completely motivated to make one praise that I understand that not enough for the significant context on your writing as one that could understand easily.

Its quite disturbing to have to live through this insanity. I am not sure if there is some conspiracy that I/we are not aware of but I mean living through these stories, one after another is taking its toll on me. It truly seems like there is an agenda which was formulated without any of us being there and it is being implemented right before our eyes. Stories like this one highlight the insanity whereby these insane people who some how get to the title of principal, are ruining schools, teachers and the future for all young people. In this case regarding Mr. Tom Porton here is an educator who goes above and beyond for kids, has been in this industry of educating kids for decades, is loved by students and so forth yet this backwards principal steps in and destroys decades of success. The question then goes back to my original thought in that maybe there is some conspiracy concocted by the DOE that has been going on ever since Mr. Bloomberg took over the NYC schools. To solve this problem seems like an eternity of battling but it continues to baffle the most experienced of educators as to the why of what the hell is going on in NYC schools. ONe can only hope that faith will overcome the devils who seem to be swirling around our livlihoods and schools every day.